Conveyors transport material, product, or articles to various processing stations in the course of operation. The conveyor may pass through a tunnel or chamber that provides a process environment that is different from the ambient environment. The articles on the conveyor are exposed to the process environment, which may cool, heat, or otherwise process the articles while on the conveyor.
Some articles have critical portions or elements that need to be heated, cooled, or otherwise processed while moving through the conveyor tunnel. For example, plastic bottle logs ejected from a blow molding machines have weld joints that need to be cooled. The length of the conveyor tunnel is established in part by the need to cool the weld joints. If the tunnel does not efficiently cool the weld joints, the length of the tunnel is longer than otherwise necessary.
Thus there is a need for an improved conveyor tunnel that can more efficiently provide a process environment for heating, cooling, or otherwise processing specific portions of an article being conveyed through the tunnel.